Red Moon Vampire
by Lucian Malus
Summary: Not based on Count Dracula, but on Count Vladeau, another fictional entity. Written to prove good does not always win.


"Red Moon Vampire"  
  
Veros Town Center Journal, 19th of July, 1452, Anno Domini.  
  
"This is the final outrage. Count Vladeau feasts at Castle while the peasants starve of hunger. This can not be anymore. Tonight, this night of a Red Moon, we attack Castle Vladeau and his outrageous owner. His guests will fall with him. The plan is laid and the die is cast. We just hope the spirits lie with our side tonight. May God forgive the sins we shall have tonight. In Nomine Pater, Fillis et Spiritu Sancti."  
  
Veros Town Center Journal, 20th of July, 1452, Anno Domini.  
  
"We attacked the Castle. The fight was bloody and fierce. Count Vladeau shrieked in terror as the rallied peasants attacked him and his noble friends. We gathered them all in the Grand Courtyard, blessed their bodies and spirit and told them to ask for forgiveness. They refused to do so. We had to hang them. Our priest condemned their souls into eternity and forbade them to ever leave the castle walls. The red moon had never glowed in such way. Before it was copper, it became bloody red. We pray forgiveness for our souls. In Nomine Pater, Fillis et Spiritu Sancti."  
  
Castle Vladeau, Veros, Carpathians. Count Vladeau VI Tombstone.  
  
"An evil spirit rests here. Forever banned  
To walk amongst us, without reach to  
Heaven or Hell  
May his spirit for ever be trapped within  
His own Castle"  
Count Lucian Vladeau VI  
  
Veros Town Center Journal, 19th of July, 1471, Anno Domini.  
  
"Tonight is a night of fear. The spirit of the forsaken Count, destroyed decades ago is said to have come back. The Red Moon lingers over the village. We have already sent notice to many of the so-called devil hunters. People are being massacred by unknown forces, we ran to the Town Center in search for protection. The Town Center large doors bang and bang. We hear scratching. We have already sent for help. The doors have broken. It's the body of the Count. He holds no soul, he's killing the guardians. Somebody save. (Abruptly ended)"  
  
Thomas Duncan called himself an archaeologist. Lorelei Windfrost, his partner, laughed at this thought. The plane they were in shook a bit every once and then. Thomas was brave, but Lorelei trembled in fear as the shaking of the plane came across them. Lorelei's imagination raced through the worst-case scenarios. Terrorists, plane crashes, loss of pressure. Pure evil never crossed her mind. As the landing gear came out, Lorelei felt relieved. They had made it. The plane landed softly onto the paved runway. The town of Veros was the only town in the Carpathians that housed a paved runway. From there, it would be travel in foot. Thomas' crew was eager to finally reach Castle Vladeau. From the London's Archives files, the Castle was so intact; the candles could still be burning. "Good, that way we'll save matches for more important things" James, the photographer, joked. The plane landed carefully and nicely, with a smooth movement as it stopped. "One can always trust British Airways, Lorry". Lorelei sighted in relief. Not knowing what expected them in the castle.  
  
Thomas Duncan was a young man. 26 years old, glasses, brown hair, tall. He was fascinated with the study of the ancient. He described his fantasy as being the first to walk into a building, not stepped on for centuries. Castle Vladeau could be the fulfillment of his dream. Lorelei Windfrost had met Thomas in an Egyptian excavation at Thebes. Since they had the same age, they hit it off, and since been good friends. The rest of the crew were the aforementioned James, Charles, the journey recorder, and Claude & Lara, brother and sister joined by their passion in archaeology, and both good connoisseurs of ancient languages.  
  
The town of Veros housed a very cozy environment. A small town, from the medieval ages, had lost little, to few of its medieval origins. The townspeople were nice and warm, even to strangers, and they showed their warmness by offering fruits to the newcomers. Not everyday they received visitors.  
  
They stayed in a small, cozy inn for a night, and then left to the Castle. The villagers' gifts got stranger now. "I got a cross" said Lorelei, "They gave me some water in a flask", Lara remarked. "To tell you the truth, I preferred the fruits" said Charles laughingly to the girls. "Well, everyone ready?" Duncan's voice rose above the others, "Because now it's cross country all the way to the castle, there are no villages near it, so we can not rest, the Carpathians are wild and dangerous forests. The trip will take at least 3 days, and we'll be arriving there at the dawn of the fourth. So, gear up and let's go" he finished. The group grabbed their traveling bags and started the long hike into the deep and dark Carpathians.  
  
The hike was long, but as Thomas said, on the dawn of the fourth day, the glimpse of the highest turret of Castle Vladeau was in sight. The explorers searched the area around, but they only found long burned village houses. The place was completely empty. "Well, we have to get there by tonight, a lady told me this place gets filled with wolves at night" Claude remarked. He picked up his traveling bag, and the rest to the team followed suit. Castle Vladeau was an ominous structure raised high in the middle of the Forbidden Island. A large patch of land surrounded by an artificial lake, built with the villagers hands under the command of the first Count. The castle raised high, and it was so intact the turrets possessed their tiles still. The drawbridge was raised, and virtually there was no other way to get into the Castle. "Well, tough luck, eh?" sighted out Claude. "Not in a million, let's dynamite the railings" Lara snapped at her brother. "And how do you expect us to get the dynamite over there?"  
  
Claude regretted ever to say those words as he swam to the other side of the large moat. The water was gooey and he could feel the algae floating underneath. Worse, any carnivorous creature living could easily take a bite off his legs. But he made it, he grabbed the soaked dynamite and the matches he wrapped in plastic. The explosion wouldn't be large, but it would be enough to destroy the drawbridge's railings. He placed the dynamite and lit it up, jumping back into the water and swimming back to safe land. He managed to reach the other side as the castle's wooden drawbridge fell down, sucking vast amounts of air, making up for the non- existing dry air on the other side.  
  
The castle's open courtyard was lined with stone blocks which ran in a spiral path towards the center. The pillars, done in a reminiscence of the roman ones, stood untouched by time. The castle's main door was straight ahead, a large wooden door, which upon opened, led to a large and straight hallway, lined with doors. "Well, I guess we'll be sleeping nice and comfy tonight, search the castle for the dormitory hallways" said Thomas, whose voice echoed in the walls.  
  
The dormitory hall was near the castle's keep. There were dozens of rooms; each one got a different private one. James chose to himself the master bedroom, the one used long ago by the Count. They settled down and started exploring the ancient castle.  
  
Many doors were locked. This, of course, was not a match to the dynamite they carried. The most impressive rooms were the ones highest. The only door, truly locked was the castle's keep. The highest turret had a stairway branching upwards from it, holding up the keep itself, a circular room. Even though a physical impossibility, there it was. No matter how much of the explosive material they wasted, the iron doors would not budge. "Well, tomorrow we'll ram it down, let's go rest"  
  
"Comfortable bed, eh?" a voice came out of the night. James rose from his bed and looked around. "I would know, you see, I have slept there for almost all my life" the voice repeated. James looked around, frightfully he ran to the door. The hand that grabbed his back would not permit it. He felt the sharp teeth sink into his neck. That would be the last he would feel. Well, alive for that instance.  
  
Lorelei arose from the arms of Thomas in the middle of the night. She woke him rapidly. His eyes open to the sight of the woman he had spent the night with. "Did you hear that scream?" she hurriedly asked. "What scream?" His question was answered with a loud shout for help, as if it were the last words of a dying man. "Sounds like." Lorelei started, "James, he's in trouble!" They both stood up and put on their clothes as they walked out of the room. Claude, Lara & Charles were already outside, and seeing Lorelei and Thomas in the same room made them laugh a bit. "Stop it with the nonsense! Did you hear the scream" Thomas' voice outgrew the laughter. "Yes, that's why we are here, aren't we. And you know James, he's prone to having accidents all the time, I say we go back to sleep" Claude mentioned. "No, sounds like if it's coming from the keep, maybe he opened it", "Him? Alone?" Claude laughed at Lara's remark. "Might as well check" Thomas turned and started walking up the stairs towards the keep.  
  
The stairways to the keep were out in the open, and what seemed a very calm night had now grown into a nightly pandemonium. The stairway as long and at the end, the keep's door were shut closed. But the shouts for help came from inside. And it was surely James. "How did he get inside?" Lara remarked. "The question is how are we getting inside?" Thomas said.  
  
His question was answered by the grinding of the door's mechanism. The iron gates slowly opened to reveal the much desired to know, castle keep. The room was a large circular room, seemingly a throne room, candles lined around it, hanging as if in mid-air before the walls. James was standing in the middle of the room, staring blankly at them. A lightning bolt crashed hard. In the brilliant flash of lighting it appeared. "It" for it was a body without a soul. The figure of a cloaked man moved towards the light. His face was somber, dark brown hair reaching down his ears and piercing red eyes. This was the figure of the Count. "Strovi" the Count spoke, his voice with a carpathian accent. Thomas looked at Lara, excellent translator in all known languages. "Its carpathos, the language of wallachian province" she told him. The Count's ominous voice spoke again. "Stivi nevios dameros saviros" his voice spoke. The Count's eyes glared at the unconscious standing body of James. The Count's voice seemed to be coming out of his mouth. "Your friend here is a prisoner of mine". The Count spoke once more. "Stivi nevios damos savianes". James body spoke once more, "You are all prisoners of mine now!" the Count's voice spoke from his body. "Dov stravia nov derve" - "You puny mortals, wandering into here!" his ominous voice rose. Claude ran over to the figure. His path was stopped by James. James took hold of his neck and broke it, throwing the mangled dead body of Claude onto the floor. Lara screamed in terror, as her brother's body fell to the ground. The Count moved forward and over to Lara, moving his open hand over her. Her body shook and had a seizure. "There, no more translators" the Count's voice spoke. Lara's body fell to the ground dead.  
  
The night became darker and stormier. The moon grew bloody red. The count spoke. "How dare you desecrate this place? You all deserve to die!" his dark voice said. Thomas, Lorelei and Charles where frozen in fear. They just say three of their friends die, and they were definitely next. The count reached for Charles and hurled him off a window; his body was pierced by one of the castle's turret peaks. Thomas and Lorelei started running towards the door, but they shut in their noses. There was no escape.  
  
Thomas and Lorry only managed to live, running from the castle with fear in their hearts; they ran to the village where the villagers nursed them. The battle they had just experienced had been long and harsh. The Count possessed many agile skills and Thomas and Lorry's only weapon was the blunt sword they took from the night armor. Thomas managed to make him bleed in the chest. The count backed and retired to the throne. "You're afraid!?" Thomas raised his voice. "Not really" the Count said "What's the use of having minions if I can't use them?" he grinned. At this last world, the keep's door opened and the nobles, guests to the Count's party centuries ago, walked in. With swings of the sword, Thomas came victorious of the struggle, mangled by scratches and bites. And as the Count stepped down from his throne, clapping loudly, he shrieked in terror and backed off, bursting into a cloud of bats which flied everywhere. The sun had come out.  
  
Thomas and Lorelei managed to live. And that same night, under the last red moon of the year, Count Vladeau, sat in his throne, pondering of how stupid his defeat was. He stood up, not having minions for his entertainment. Tonight, Veros would become a ghost village.  
  
Thomas and Lorelei lied on the bed of the inn. Finally, calm. The villagers believed every word they said. They had known the dangers. Then they heard the screams. And a villager with a bloody neck came crashing onto the window of their room. They arose in fright. It was him again. His figure floated in by the window. "No use crying for help, you're the only ones alive" the Count said as Lorelei opened her mouth. His feet landed onto the floor with a small -tock- of his boots. "Now, no escape, no sunlight, no swords" he grinned.  
  
Later that night, Count Lucian Vladeau VI sat on his throne, sipping a nice drink of warm A+ from his chalice. He smiled softly. Maybe good will win at the end, but for now, this night was his and of his guests he was -having- for dinner. 


End file.
